THE BISHOP'S CROZIER: Spiritual Resolutions

By Bishop James R. Golka

Happy New Year! As we begin 2025, many of us are making our traditional new year resolutions on how we might live our lives better, develop healthier habits, and so on.

This is also a great opportunity to consider spiritual new year resolutions, especially as we begin the Jubilee Year of Hope. There are many spiritual resolutions we might consider, but I would like to suggest three that will help us to grow in being witnesses of joy and hope in our world.

Commitment to Prayer

Often times, we make new year resolutions because we have lost certain disciplines or good habits of life. The new year and the Jubilee Year of Hope is a time in which we can renew our commitment to daily prayer to more deeply encounter Christ who is our hope. We cannot live the Christian life and have a personal relationship with Jesus without daily prayer. Would it be possible to have a healthy marriage if the spouses only talked to each other every once in a while?  Of course not! Jesus wants to have a deep friendship with us in prayer, and like a marriage, this requires a daily commitment. Ideally, we should devote an hour to prayer each day, but it might start with 15 minutes that works towards a half hour and so on. This time can be spent reading Scripture, saying our favorite prayers, praying the Liturgy of the Hours, but also just talking to God like a friend. We never waste our time in prayer, because even if prayer is difficult or doesn’t feel like we are getting much out of it, God is blessing us with his grace and peace.

I would also like to particularly encourage the daily recitation of the rosary, especially for families.  As the saying goes, families that pray together, stay together. The rosary brings us into close relationship with Jesus and Mary because while we are saying the prayers of the rosary, we are also meditating upon Scripture and the key events and mysteries of the lives of Jesus and Mary. What makes the rosary an especially powerful devotion is because Jesus’ mother Mary is praying with us and for us. In his beautiful apostolic letter on the rosary, St. John Paul II reveals the power of Mary’s maternal intercession for us when he states, “The Rosary mystically transports us to Mary’s side as she is busy watching over the human growth of Christ in the home of Nazareth. This enables her to train us and to mold us with the same care, until Christ is ‘fully formed’ in us.” (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 15)

Commitment to Learning Our Faith

Another spiritual resolution that is crucially important is the commitment to learning our faith.  In this time of the New Evangelization, the laity in particular are called to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world through word and witness. How can we witness and proclaim our faith if we do not know it?  Forming our faith through catechesis is a life-long endeavor for all and should never end.  St. John Paul II does not mince words when he says, “It must be restated that nobody in the Church of Jesus Christ should feel excused from receiving catechesis.” (Catechesi tradendae, 45) This is particularly true in our digital age when there are so many opportunities to learn our faith that are literally at our fingertips! In my pastoral letter, “Christ our Hope,” I stated, “Strengthening our hope in Christ in order to share that hope with others involves re-acquiring a biblical worldview through prayerful reading and study of Sacred Scripture, ongoing catechesis and formation, and education in the witness and wisdom of the saints who have gone before us in heroically living the Catholic faith.  This conversion of mind and heart will help us to see, think, and act like Jesus and to be his disciples and witnesses in the world.” The Jubilee Year is a great opportunity to take time daily to learn our faith in order to be Christ’s witnesses of joy and hope. Our diocesan Year of Hope website provides a number of opportunities to learn our faith including books, podcasts, parish studies, etc. so that we can know, live, and share our faith. 

Commitment to Evangelization

The Jubilee Year of Hope also calls us to renew our commitment to share our faith through evangelization and being witnesses of hope. This starts with having an evangelization mindset, that is, being willing to live our faith vibrantly, talk to others about how God makes a difference in our lives, and to pray for opportunities for the Holy Spirit to use us to touch the hearts of others. We need to remember that the Holy Spirit is the principal agent of evangelization — it is he who primarily does the work, and we are merely instruments in his plan. An evangelization mindset helps us to be open to the Holy Spirit’s presence and power working in our lives and the lives of others and disposing ourselves to his inspiration.  We should also be on the lookout for people in our lives who need to know God’s love and pray for them and also pray to the Holy Spirit to provide an opportunity for us to evangelize them through our witness or a conversation. The Holy Spirit knows who they are and what they need more than we do.

This year is also the Year of Mission for the National Eucharistic Revival, which has launched the Walk with One initiative. This initiative invites every Catholic to walk with one person who needs the joy and hope of Jesus Christ in their lives and can be found at https://www.eucharisticrevival.org/walk-with-one. I encourage all to consider participating in this excellent and inspiring evangelization opportunity as we move forward in both the Year of Hope and Year of Mission for the National Eucharistic Revival.  

Finally, I again invite all to read my pastoral letter for the Year of Hope entitled “Christ our Hope.” I especially encourage parish staff, parish apostolates, small groups, and families to read the study edition of the letter that will help us to both know and live out the vision and mission of this Jubilee Year of Hope. The study edition is available in the diocesan Year of Hope website at https://www.diocs.org/About/Year-of-Hope.

May God bless you abundantly in this Jubilee Year of Hope!